Women are being called on to have smear tests as screening rates hit a 20-year-low.
One charity has even admitted 'the Jade Goody effect is long gone'.
Latest statistics show attendance of cervical screening in England is the lowest for two decades, having fallen to 72 per cent.
Following the diagnosis of Big Brother star Jade Goody with cervical cancer back in 2008 and her subsequent death at the age of just 27, the charity says an extra 400,000 women went for their screening.
Her openness in fighting the disease which killed her on Mother's Day in March 2009 - leaving behind her young sons Bobby and Freddy - brought home to young women the importance of regularly going for the checks.
But now rates have fallen and it's feared the complacency will have tragic outcomes for women who could well be saved.
Robert Music, chief executive of Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust, said: “I am extremely disappointed to see these statistics, however sadly I am not surprised.
"The Jade Goody effect has long gone. We have spoken out time and time again about the need for investment and action to improve cervical screening attendance, however this is simply not happening.
"The Cancer Strategy for England emphasises prevention so it is incredibly frustrating to see lack of activity to increase participation in a programme that can prevent diagnoses of cervical cancer."
Women aged 25 to 49 are offered screening every three years on the NHS and women aged 50 to 64 are offered screening every five years.
This includes women who have had the HPV vaccination, as the vaccine doesn’t guarantee complete protection against cervical cancer.
In a report released last year, Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust found almost half (44%) of local authorities and almost two thirds (60%) of CCGs had not undertaken any activities to increase screening attendance in the last two years with many stating it was not their responsibility.
The charity's CEO Robert Music hopes the recent figures will be a wake-up call.
He added: "We should be proud of our cervical screening programme, it saves thousands of lives every year and further developments such as the introduction of HPV primary screening are only going to make it better.
"However with increasing numbers not attending fewer will benefit from these improvements.
"As a charity we are working our hardest but we can’t do it alone. There are some examples of amazing work happening across the country to improve uptake and we need to see this amplified, locally and nationally or lives will be lost.
"We are leading busier, more mobile lives therefore these statistics must surely serve as a call to action to make the screening programme more accessible, again, something we have been saying for years.”
The charity is calling for the government to fund a national awareness campaign alongside increased investment to facilitate innovation and activity at a local level.
A lack of funding is hindering the progress of changes which will increase accessibility for women including the ability to attend screening at GPs other than the one they are registered with, such as close to work, at more sexual health services and to be able to self sample.
